Mushrooms for supper
by Kissa-chan
Summary: Set when Hiko was training Kenshin, what happens when he sends his baka deshie for some firewood. Please R&R!!!


Disclaimer;I do not own Rouroni Kenshin. The characters belong to someone else, the story below is mine, all mine. Wah ha ha ha . . . . Okay, that's enough of that!  
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Kenshin trudged through the bush looking for firewood. Master Hiko had been training him for hours already that day and was finally ready to feed him, but only if the small red headed boy would go fetch some firewood.  
  
Kenshin's stomach rumbled angrily. He was starving, and trudging through the waist high snowbanks wasn't helping him at all. He gritted his teeth and scanned his eyes along the ground. There had to be some wood somewhere. There just had to be. He didn't know what his stomach would do to him if he didn't feed it.  
  
He spotted a snow laden branch and quickly made his way over to it. It was low enough that he could cut it off with his sword than drag it back as firewood for his master to make supper over.  
  
He drew his sword with his icy cold fingers and poised it over his head, ready to swing downward on a seconds notice. Then he stopped. There was a bird nest in the branch that he wanted to cut down, and there were baby birds in the nest.  
  
He sighed and re-sheathed his sword, his stomach in the gripe of pain because of the lack of food he had in it. **Why are there baby birds in the only branch that I can really reach?** he wondered.  
  
He walked until his feet were frozen and his hakama pants were freezing around his legs. Keeping his head bowed against the sudden wind he tried to find something to build a fire with. He had a new reason to want a fire now, he was cold and hungry.  
  
In his arms he had a collection of sticks and twigs that he had already found, but he knew that it wouldn't be enough for a real meal although, at the point he was at, he didn't care if he had to eat raw rice and uncooked fish. Of course Master Hiko would never let him eat his fish raw, but he was so hungry that he decided he could even eat his master at the moment - cooked or not.  
  
To entertain himself, he pictured himself sneaking up on Hiko with a ravenous expression on his face. Hiko, who would be quietly sipping sake in front of a roaring fire would think he heard something. Turning he would see nothing but undisturbed snow all the way back to the tree line. He wouldn't see Kenshin because he was so short that he was completely buried by the snow and was tunneling quietly towards him.  
  
Hiko would turn back to his fire and his sake, and then - POW! Kenshin got hit in the head. "What taking you so long?" Hiko demanded from behind him. "And what's with that stupid look on your face, baka?"  
  
Kenshin, with swirls in his eyes, pulled himself to his feet. "Nothing Master. I wasn't thinking about anything like that. It was just something to pass the time, honestly." He reigned his thoughts in enough to know not to tell Hiko that he had been imagining preparing him for the stew pot. He hated to think about what the swordsman would do to him if he told.  
  
Hiko had an armful of firewood. "all right, I'm not going to delve into the mind of a baka anymore then I already have. Come along, let's get back to camp and get the soup cooking." He started back to the camp and Kenshin followed his at a slower pace caused by shorter legs and less energy.   
  
Watching the back of Hiko's head he imagined hitting him in the head with a piece of firewood then tying him on a spit over a fire and roasting him. He imagined Hiko breaking out and dunking him in the river too, which was lucky because he might have actually tried it if he hadn't foreseen his punishment.  
  
He sighed. "I'm sooooooo hungry," he moaned before he could stop himself. He looked up with a winch on his face. Was Hiko going to hit him for being a crybaby?   
  
He blinked. Hiko was so far ahead of him that he couldn't even see him anymore. While imagining he had stopped walking and started salivating if the frozen drool on his chin was any indication.   
  
Kenshin scowled. "It's too cold for children out here. Even my spit's freezing in this weather. His stomach rumbled an agreement and a threat, "Feed me or else. . . . " was the threat given.  
  
"We'll get to camp soon, and then master will let us eat him," he said. Then he shook his head. "I mean, master will have some food for us, but. . . . . . " his voice trailed off as he spotted some green mushroom with silver spots growing on the side of a tree.   
"Hello, what have we here?" Kenshin asked with zeal.  
  
He selected one of the mushrooms and nibbled on the corner. A slightly bubbly taste filled his mouth and caused his to giggle slightly. "These are good," he said between giggles.  
  
He popped the whole mushroom into his mouth and nearly choked on it as it practically dissolved in his mouth with a sizzling feeling. He laughed out loud. The mushrooms were fun to eat. He ate three more at once and was rendered to gales of laughter.  
  
"I don't need to eat Master Hiko, I can eat mushrooms. He's probably tough and sour anyway," he said. He was sitting in the snow now in the embrace of side splitting laughter.   
  
He ate several more before he was laughing to hard to breath. That was when Hiko arrived. "Are you hungry or not?" he asked Kenshin. "If you are you had better come and get the soup while it's hot."  
  
Kenshin laughed joyfully. Master was speaking just like a squirrel. In fact, didn't his master kind of look like a squirrel? He began to laugh harder.   
  
Hiko frowned. What was wrong with the boy? He usually came running at the mere thought of food. The boy's thoughts usually began and ended with his stomach, or they had since he had arrived at Hiko's house.  
  
Kenshin was waving for him to leave. "Go away Lil' squirrel. I ain't an acorn tree, and I ain't got no nuts, kay?" he laughed. Then after a slight pause he cackled. "Actually I do. I'm a boy so I do!"  
  
Hiko took a calming breath and restrained himself for hitting the freezing child. "I'm not a squirrel, Kenshin," he said carefully.  
  
"Where's Master Squirrel when I blow out the candle?" he asked in between fits of laughter.  
  
"Where?" Hiko asked. His patience was running low.   
  
"In the dark," Kenshin hollered in laughter. "Get it! He's in the dark!" He popped another mushroom in his mouth and giggled as it fizzled against his tongue.  
  
Hiko quickly picked one of the mushrooms off of the tree and licked it. It sizzled on his tongue and made him want to laugh. "Laughing mushroom," he said in disgust. "How many of these things did you consume baka? He demanded as he picked the hysterical boy up and carried him back to camp.  
  
Kenshin couldn't focus on his training for three days. "Today I will begin to show you one of the secret sword techniques of the Hiten Mitsurgi Style. Ryu Kan Sen," Hiko said.  
  
"Reeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhheeeeeeeaaaaaaallllllllllly," Kenshin declared then fell over with laughter and wasn't able to even look at Hiko for the rest of the day because he was laughing so much.   
  
Hiko was forced to cancel the training until her could stick his tongue out at Kenshin (which was humiliating ) and get and 'oro' rather than a gale of senseless laughter.  
~owari~  
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Thank-you for reading my fic. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  
  
Kissa-chan 


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